Kenya Diaries: Day 6, Part 4 - Biointensive Farming in a Wet Region, Part 2 (SARDI)

Day 6 was a long day. After visiting a small farm in a semi-arid region and a nearby primary school (grades 1-8), we headed off to a nearby wet region to see some farms there. This is the second post about those farms.

Recall that the community we were visiting decided all together to go organic and adopt biointensive farming with the help of SARDI (Sustainable Ag & Rural Dev Initiative). The 15 farms each border a river so the farmers have as much water as they can carry - unless they have a water pump.

We left the farm of Waithera Kimotho and walked a short distance to the home and farm of Simon Kiarie. Like so many communities in the Global South, they didn't have roads - they have trails. After all, no one has a car.


Simon in front of his home

Simon is one of five brothers. His father had five acres and it was split among the brothers so that each now farms one acre. Simon began farming here in 1979. Simon says that the farms in this area are each one acre or less. Actually, Simon's wife Peris does the work on this farm because Simon was injured several years ago and now cannot handle anything beyond light work. They do not employ anyone else to work on the farm.

Simon and Peris had four children. They have two girls who are married, one boy who died, and one remaining son. Their son is in fifth grade, and his school costs 14,800 shillings ($178) per term. They had to sell their livestock to pay for his school.

When he began farming here, Simon used chemicals. But they stopped using chemicals two years ago. They were influenced to do so by a program they heard on the radio, and they decided to just give it a try. The chemicals were expensive, Peris said, and they didn't help them. "The fertilizer is very expensive and the product is not all that much," said Peris. "It hardens the soil and increases the salt," added Simon.

Simon and his wife impressed me with their sophistication. First Simon showed me his tissue culture bananas. Then he showed me an avocado tree that had two different varieties of avocado grafted onto it. He said he did the grafting himself.


Tissue culture bananas


Sweet potatoes


Avocados

He sells both the bananas and the sweet potatoes. He also grows amaranth, cassava, mangoes, papaya, coffee, maize, beans, onions, and cowpeas. The maize and beans are intercropped, and he does not grow enough to sell any. However, after switching to organic, they had enough extra maize to give some to their child's school to offset their tuition costs. They grow two maize crops per year. One is planted in March and harvested in August, and then they plant again in October.

Simon and Peris irrigate with water from the river but they have to carry it by hand because they do not have a pump.


HUGE cassava plant

Next door, Simon's brother has coffee trees that are loaded with unripe fruit. He is the sole member of this community who has refused to go organic, and he uses chemicals on his coffee. Kenyans don't really drink coffee - this is all for sale.

Simon also grows coffee, but he doesn't have as much fruit on his. His wife says she doesn't have enough manure for the coffee now so she won't get a harvest. And she says the chemicals you need are very expensive. It sounds like even though the rest of the farm is organic, the coffee might not be. Peris added that coffee needs enough water and when there is enough rain and she has enough manure, she harvests 1000 kg. Neither brother uses shade trees for their coffee at all.


Simon's brother's coffee - NOT organic.


Simon's coffee

I asked Simon about the difference once he switched to organic. He said "Once I began using manure, it grows big."


Papaya


Compost


Double dug field


The farm


Gravillea, a popular tree to grow in this area


A newly planted bed of cowpeas and onions.

During our visit, they were burning the remains of their last corn crop and said they would spread the ash on the field. Francis advised them to compost it instead of burning.

I tried to ask Peris about her yields back when she used chemicals. "Once we used fertilizer, we had to use other chemicals for spraying. Pesticides," she said. But she said she doesn't need to use that now. She just uses manure. I didn't get a very clear answer from her about yields but it sounded like the yields were determined by how much rain there is. She said she needs about 3 90 kg bags of maize to feed her family and she can usually produce that much on her farm, but if the rains fail, she won't get it.

She said, "There's not enough rain anymore... Before it was really proper rain. There was heavy rain early. By February, we get enough rain. March - up to... But this time, there is not enough rain." She wants a water pump. That would cost 40,000 shillings, or $480.

Another issue Peris brought up is that there is sometimes theft. People will come to the farm and steal her harvest.

We then took a walk from Simon's farm to see a few other farms along the river. We ended at Waithera's farm.




Black nightshade, a popular Kenyan crop. They eat the leaves. I tasted it and did not like it much.


Black nightshade ripe fruit


Black nightshade, flowering.

As we walked, a little boy named Wilson would tap me on the back occasionally and point out various plants. He was one of the neighbor's kids. Age 12. When we ended at Waithera's home, I took this picture of him:



We ended by taking a photo of everybody:

Kenya Diaries: Day 6, Part 3 - Biointensive Farming in a Wet Region, Part 1 (SARDI)

Day 6 was a long day. After visiting a small farm in a semi-arid region and a nearby primary school (grades 1-8), we headed off to a nearby wet region to see some farms there.


Best. Picture. Ever!!!! (Read his shirt)

Kenya is split between wet, semi-arid, and arid zones. The mountainous wet zones are used to grow some of the top cash crops - tea and coffee. Thika itself is in a semi-arid zone but it is not far from a wetter area. Francis had recently begun working in the wet area too so he could compare farming there with farming in the semi-arid region. To get there, we rode a matatu, Kenya's privately run mini-buses that seat 15 (including the driver) but regularly cram 20+ people in to earn as much money as possible. Unlike a public bus, matatus will stop and drop you off or pick you up anywhere along the route. This is nice because you can go exactly where you want, and not nice because you have to stop all the time so that everyone else can go exactly where they want.


A market near the junction where we went to catch our matatu

While in Kenya, I heard 2 funny sayings. One is that there's always room for one more person in a matatu. The second is 'matatu matata.' Matata is Swahili for 'trouble.' As in 'hakuna matata.' Both sayings are true. I'd add that if you can get the matatu door shut, then you definitely have room for at least 2 more people. And just when people start to leave the matatu and you get comfortable because you've got a seat all to yourself, that's when the driver will sit and wait so he can fill up the car before driving further.

The nicest thing I can say about the matatu is: it's cheap. A ride that costs $50 in a private car with a driver will cost less than $2 in a matatu. As we drove to the wet region, I was glad to have Francis with me to make sure we got charged a fair price and to make sure we got our change after we paid too. A mzungu like me riding alone is sure to get overcharged.

While we road, the scenery changed. Suddenly, the plants around us were green! We got off and then set off away from the road for a small village. Their entire community decided together to go organic, and every single farmer except for one has done so. To make the transition, they are working with SARDI (Sustainable Ag & Rural Development Initiative) and they are using the Grow Biointensive method of farming.


The view as we approached the village. The area across the river had terraces but I did not really observe terraces where we were.

We walked up to a house with a cow and then stopped. Several people met us and then we continued walking down the hill toward a river. I felt compelled to ask whether this river also contained hippos - or for that matter, crocs. No, neither. A little less exciting for me, but ultimately a very good thing for local farmers.

We started by a small plant nursery, where I was introduced to the farmers, Waithera Kimotho and her husband Francis Kimotho. Waithera's the farmer. They've been working with SARDI for five months. We were joined by their neighbor Simon Kiarie. They walked me through the farm from the nursery all the way down to the riverside, where the property ended. They told me this land was only 1/4 acre but it seemed bigger. No bigger than an acre though. It was not a large farm.


Nursery


Waithera and Francis Kimotho



The couple was married in the 1980s and they have seven children. The oldest child is 32 years old. They use the river water for irrigation. They used to carry the water in buckets but with the extra money they made since going organic, they bought a water pump. To grow their crops, they often plant seeds in a seed bed and then transplant the seedlings.

Before working with SARDI, Waithera used chemicals. I asked if she's had any problems with using organic methods. She said she has not experienced any problems - she's getting robust yields. She said she grows 'pole pole' in a good way. "Pole pole" is Swahili for little by little. In the past, sometimes when she would use chemicals, she would have stomach problems after eating the crops. Back then, the pests would eat the crops even though she used chemicals to kill them. Now, she no longer has pest problems.

Waithera found SARDI at a nearby training session and she approached them to work with them. Her farm is entirely run on family labor - no hired help. She says that organic farming is actually easier - less labor - than farming with chemicals.


Kale a.k.a. sukumawiki


Kale

As you look at photos of the farm, you'll see that the soil here is red. They call it Kikuyu Red Soil. The people here are from the Kikuyu ethnic group, the largest ethnic group in Kenya. At this farm, Waithera grows cabbage, kale, papaya, avocado, banana, passionfruit, spinach, French beans, cowpeas, Gravillea, cassava, maize, beans, and flowers. They eat the food they grow, and they sell the crops to earn an income as well.


Notice the spacing. They have beds that are a few feet wide with aisles in between.


These beds are not weed-free. But nor are the weeds overtaking the plants and preventing the farmer from getting a good crop.


Maize used as windbreaks, trees intercropped with plants. The tall trees are gravillea (a popular tree crop here, which I assume is used as lumber and/or fuel) and the one in the front is papaya. Looks like the crop might be green beans.


Banana trees







No doubt you've noticed that the various beds are in different stages of growth. Some are just planted, others are more mature plants. Grow Biointensive, which was developed in northern California where there is year-round good weather and irrigation water too, teaches farmers to do this so they always have something to harvest. I wonder how good that idea is though for rainfed agriculture in a place like Kenya that traditionally has two rainy seasons each year and in many places the rest of the year is quite dry. Fortunately this particular area is blessed with more rainfall and with a river to provide irrigation water - although a farmer wishing to irrigate has to carry the water from the river by hand unless he or she has an electric pump.

Most Kenyan farmers who lack irrigation plant twice a year, once during the 'short rains' in November and once during the 'long rains' in March. However, the rainy seasons have become less dependable with the onset of the climate crisis. Assuming the rains don't fail and a farmer gets a crop, then they eat what they harvest each season and now - at the end of the dry season - their diets get rather monotonous, full of whatever stores well, like maize, beans, and cabbage. But on irrigated biointensive farms, everything is growing all the time. The exception are the few crops like maize and beans that store well. Those are still planted during the rains from what I observed.


Sugarcane, I think. Sugarcane is a popular treat in Kenya. It's sold by street vendors who peel it with a panga (machete) and cut it into chunks.


The compost pile


Flowers, being grown under a cover to protect them from the sun.


The flowers are being grown under here.


A better look at the plant nursery.




Tree tomatoes, I think

Tree tomato (Cyphomandra betacea) is a native Andean crop and I was shocked to find out that it's a popular fruit in Kenya. In Nairobi, you can get tree tomato juice in some restaurants.

We then trekked back up the hill to the house to see the cows. Waithera used to have a dairy cow but it was stolen. She now has two bulls - a mature one and a calf. She opted for bulls instead of a dairy cow because she didn't want her animals to be as tempting to thieves. She sells her bulls when she needs money. She can sell them at any point after they are 1 year old.


Cow

She chooses to get "grade" (specific breeds typically brought in from foreign countries because of their fast growth or high milk production) cows instead of the local breeds, and says she's kept grade cows for years. I asked which breed these were (Angus?) and someone with us suggested they might be Holstein. They absolutely are not Holstein (black and white spotted dairy cows). She said the difference between 'grade' cows and local breeds is that the grade cows will grow to full size in three years instead of four.


Waithera near the cow enclosure.

Waithera does what Kenyans call 'zero grazing.' That just means keeping your animal confined and bringing the food to it instead of letting it out on pasture. It's a relatively new concept in Kenya. Waithera doesn't have enough land to let her cows out to graze much, so if she's going to have a cow, this is the only real option for her. Also, although Waithera didn't say, grade animals often must be kept confined for other reasons: they are very susceptible to local diseases (unlike the local breeds) and they need more food and water and wouldn't get enough calories if they went out grazing on local vegetation. I think the issue of getting enough calories is particularly true of dairy cows because producing milk takes a lot of calories. Grade animals are given 'supplements' - high calorie food that I think typically includes molasses.


Waithera and Francis Kimotho's home

We finished up at the Kimotho's home and then set off for Simon's farm.

Kenya Diaries: Day 6, Part 2 - The School That Broke My Heart (SARDI)

After visiting a tiny but successful biointensive farm, Francis took me to Peter Kariuki Primary School. You could probably hear my heart breaking all the way from America when we visited the school.

The day before, Francis and I rode motorbikes to get to the health clinic and on the way home, I noticed tons of school kids staring at me. Kenya used to be a British colony so I hadn't suspected that there would be people around - many people for that matter - who had never seen a white person. Or to use their word for it, a mzungu. But from the stares I was getting from the kids, I was obviously something pretty interesting and probably funny looking as well. I just waved at them in a friendly way as if I didn't know there was anything strange about me.

So on Day 6 when Francis took me back in the same direction on motorbikes again and we visited a school - probably the very same school all the staring kids from the day before attend - I was a little more prepared for the reaction I got. But not entirely.



We entered the school grounds at Peter Kariuki Primary School and I swear to god, every single kid in the school crowded around me. Adults in the countryside were more reserved about seeing a funny looking mzungu, but the kids did not hide their curiosity.

Some of the kids were lacking shoes, and many of them were dirty and wearing worn out uniforms. This is not the norm for Kenya. More than the people of any other country I've visited, Kenyans are CLEAN and WELL-DRESSED. Even in the Kibera slum, the people look nice. In Kibera and everywhere else, they looked even nicer than I did. I mean, I shower regularly and sometimes even comb my hair and I don't intentionally wear clothing that is dirty or has holes, but Kenyans have their hair done nicely and the men wear suits and the women wear skirts. So to find a group of kids that were not clean and well dressed, well, to me that sent a strong, clear message. These kids had no other options. If they had the ability to dress well and clean up, they would have.

I asked if the kids wanted me to take their picture, and they elbowed each other and shoved their way in front of one another until I took it. Then the garden teacher came out to greet me and told the kids that only a certain group should follow us and the rest should go back to class or wherever they were supposed to be.


The kids, each more eager than the next to be in the photo.

We walked back to the small garden and I had a hard time getting any photos because the kids surrounded me entirely. The garden teacher explained that they have just started this demonstration biointensive garden to teach the kids - and, through them, their parents - how to grow more food in a small space. But they lack water and since it's now the end of the dry season, there wasn't much going on in the garden at all.


The garden

As a Southern California, I found that understandable. It's dry here for much of the year too and even though I have a garden hose with all the water I could ask for, there's just nothing like the rain. Rain is magic if you grow food. The plants germinate better, grow better, everything is better. I always prefer to wait for the rain to start my plants instead of watering them if I have the choice. The difference between me and the school of course is that a) if my plants don't grow, I can buy food at the store and b) if it really isn't going to rain and I really want to get my plants started, I do have water to irrigate with.




The kids and their garden

They asked me to say a few words to the kids, so I did. I told them that I love to grow the same vegetables that are popular in Kenya, and I asked if they liked pumpkin, beans, spinach, cabbage, maize, and sukumawiki (kale). I told them we love to eat those foods in America too. I asked if they would teach their parents how to grow food the way they learned at school, and the kids said yes. I realized later how naive I was to say such a thing, since many of the kids do not have parents, thanks to AIDS.

Then the teacher asked me if I had heard of the Scout movement, and I said no. Was it the same as Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts in the U.S.? The teacher began by saying that it was founded by Lord Baden-Powell. Oh my god! That IS the same scouts as we have in the U.S.!!! And then an idea started forming in my mind.

The kids have to get water from 5 km (3 mi) away because the school doesn't have very much. They have a few water tanks for the students with disabilities and for emergencies, and they have a well that doesn't work. The person who made it did a shoddy job on it and didn't drill deep enough or something, so that water doesn't come out. But they have it partially dug and there is a pump. What if our Scout troop could raise the money so they'd have a well? Or at least an extra water tank or two??? And then our Scouts could learn about the lives of Scouts in other countries, children just like them who lead much more difficult lives.

While I was cooking up this idea, the Scouts did a demonstration for me, singing a song, marching, and saying the Scout pledge in unison.


Scouts


Scouts


Students


School grounds

Then we left the kids and went to meet with Francis, the Deputy Head Teacher. As we walked, several of the kids tried to touch my skin and even pull my hair.


Francis, the Deputy Headteacher



Francis told me the conditions the kids faced in their homes. Several were orphans (often due to AIDS), and in some cases, the parents were alive but had just abandoned the children. Many orphans were cared for by elderly, feeble grandparents, but some were in child-headed households. Many kids, even those with parents, came from families that were too poor to feed the children breakfast. The school had a bit of maize to provide a few of the most vulnerable children with some ugali (porridge) for lunch, but most of the children ate nothing for lunch at all. Some ate only dinner each day, if that.

The kids walked to school from as far as 6-7 km away, some doing so without shoes. Particularly those in child-headed households but perhaps others had to work after school just to get enough money to eat a little bit. Some carried water for money, others worked in a nearby quarry. "Isn't that dangerous?" I asked. The response I got was basically a (much) more polite version of "Duh." Yes, it's dangerous. It's not work a child should be doing. And some kids just try to steal a pineapple and sell it to get a little bit of money, probably from Del Monte's huge plantation.

Later in my trip, someone told me that Del Monte had security dogs that attacked and sometimes killed people who tried to steal pineapples. A look at Kenya's National Assembly's record from 2000 confirms this (and again here). There's more from 2009 here and here but it's not available unless you subscribe. It seems that the problems occurred in 2000, and hopefully Del Monte decided that the dogs were bad for its image and that it was more profitable to lose a pineapple or two than to have guard dogs that murder would-be thieves.

The school does what it can for the kids, but they don't have the resources to give the kids the food and water they need. Water is the key, because with water, the school might be able to grow some food in the garden. With water on site, perhaps some of the kids won't have to walk 5 km to fetch water and they can spend that time learning instead. However, water's a small start, truly. The kids need food and beyond that, they need healthy, loving parents and they need to be able to be children without having to work in a quarry or stealing pineapple just to eat.

Since I visited the school, I asked what it would cost for them to finish drilling the well. They provided me with an estimate of $20,000, which I suspect is an overly large estimate. Kenyans like to go big at first and then expect they will have to negotiate and compromise in the middle. And they tend to think that anyone with white skin is loaded with cash.

Francis of SARDI then talked to the school and they sent me a revised estimate of $3,300 to buy two very large water tanks and set up water harvesting, a more sustainable approach and also a much easier amount of money to raise. Now that I'm back in the U.S. I am talking to our local scout leader, who is very enthusiastic about the project.